Circularity Gigamaps exhibition October 2020, Italy

The circularity Gigamaps developed by ETH SDL students from autumn term 2019 where exhibited and discussed as part of the 9th Regenerative Design Talk by MonViso Institute, together with this spring semester 2020 Master course “Open Systems Design” of Politecnico Torino. Systemic design master students of Politecnico Torino co-curated this lively exhibition on their regional circular economy systems designs from their Master course for the same region the ETH SDL students work on – but on different scales. Local companies engaged with students to identify new circular business opportunities during the inauguration. The exhibition in the Centre Polifunzionale San’Antonio in the community of Ostana, Piedmont/Italy, remains open for some more time to visit.

Online article in the ETH NSL newsletter on the 2019 SDL Master course in the Italian Piedmont.

Luthe, T. 2018. Systemic Design Labs: Incubating systemic design skills by experiential didactics and nature-based creativity. In: ETH Zurich Learning and Teaching Journal. Special Edition. Proceedings of the Learning and Teaching Fair 2018, pages 56ff. Luthe, T., Lumpe, T., Schwarz, J., Schuetz, M. and K. Shea. 2017. Teaching Systemic Design For Sustainability In Engineering By Building…

Beyond bio-composites: Hemp skis

During the Systemic Design Labs course “ski and board building seminar”, we introduced hemp fibers, Paulownia and Laburnum wood veneer, grown on the lands of the MonViso Institute. Based on the long-time experience of the Grown – Design as Nature – collective, we prototyped the first hemp skis while students assisted and built their own…

Exploring a hemp based bio-regional economy

Material science, land use planning, visionary futures – a first explorative project. In this systemic design research project (2021-22), we develop foundations for a yet to come much larger program on a hemp based bio-regional economy: we prototype regenerative hemp composite building materials, embedded in regional circularities with a focus on de-carbonizing the Swiss construction…

Alpine Urban Resilience

Urban and alpine areas around the globe are socio-economically connected, through the exchange of goods, through tourism, through various up- and downstream cycles -we refer to alpine-urban circularity. Many mountain livelihoods are dependent on the flow of urban populations seeking refuge in nature. Increasing urban heat has driven city dwellers to cooler temperatures at higher elevations….

RSDx Symposium – Architecture within trans-scalar Systemic Design of Regenerative Cultures

Watch for this special symposium this fall 2022. The date and details will be announced via the SDA newsletter (Systemic Design Association). In these highly dynamic and complex times, we increasingly realise the interconnectedness within systems of practice. The built environment as our focal systems scale is a meaningful and rich illustration of requiring an…

Advancing Systemic Design Methodology

Our current societal challenges lead to increased complexity and uncertainty. Neither the analytical and descriptive tools of science, nor the iterative doing of design alone are adequate for addressing complex challenges to implement and guide transformative action. Combining both cultures of reasoning and methods as a fluid, solution oriented and synergistic process, is hybrid, and…